So much of a rancher’s revenue depends on how well Mother Nature decides to cooperate. This year she is playing hard to get with the water. Typically at this point, ranchers in the area have stopped feeding hay and are relying on the rain to grow the grass and give the cattle their proper nutrition. If you’ve payed any attention to the news lately, most of the western US is dry and unusually warm. Because we haven’t had much rain, most managers need to start making some big and unfortunate decisions. The list of options is pretty short. 1) Buy more hay (if you can find it and afford it) or 2) sell some cattle to relieve the pressure on land.
Currently our hay barn looks like this. It was full to the brim a few months ago. If things continue it will be completely empty sooner than I’d like to admit.
Good nutrition management of your cattle is the easiest way to be successful at ranching. If something isn’t done, the cattle will start to fall off pretty drastically and that will hurt bottom line. It will be a few weeks before we face the decisions above, so for now, all we will do is keep praying for rain.